Thursday, May 22, 2014

Teabaggers Keep Your Shitty Hands Off My VA

Reprinted from DelawareLiberal, appearing on 5/22, 2014 by ProgressivePopulist

The current uproar over wait times and probable malfeasance and maybe
criminal cover ups at some VA facilities being investigated has caused a
call for privatization of the VA health system. This demand is mostly
heard from teabagger Republicans in Congress.
Some want the VA
chief's head on a platter. Have you really looked at our private health
system in the U.S.? If you have, you'd not be calling for this absurd
"solution" to current scheduling and service demand issues.
These
same clowns were huge supporters of an unfunded war in Iraq and the
travesty in Afghanistan which caused demand for healthcare services to
increase from 400,000 to 918,000 veterans, just during President Obama's
tenure as our commander in chief. They've chosen to ignore possible
funding needs at the VA just as they chose to ignore paying for Iraq.
Now it's coming back to haunt them. Or more correctly, haunt our recent
veterans and their families who deserve the best our nation has to
give.
True, President Obama has succeeded in shoehorning in a 50%
VA budget increase, but not without a bloody, shitstorm fight with the
congressional teabagger Republicans. I am not arguing for a one to one
increase in the VA budget based on this lopsided demand growth curve. I
am arguing that budget may play a role and must be at the center of
solutions discussions.
My own VA experience has not seen this
scheduling problem either in Houston or Wilmington. But, I've got
pretty routine aging health issues not requiring much secondary,
specialty clinical care like many vets require. But for sure, compared
to my many decades of private health care and career as a hospital
marketing consultant prior to my use of the VA for the past 10 years, I
can tell you I'm never going back to that three ring circus.
It
was and is a circular firing squad consisting of doctors, insurance
companies and hospitals. All fighting for their piece of the profit
pie at the patient's expense, literally and figuratively.
When
this scandal broke, I took a look at the senior VA leadership in DC.
What I found, not surprisingly, were resume's heavy with military
experience. This is not surprising being the agency serving military
veterans. I found a couple of medical/public health resume's , but
shocking to me, no resume's of senior level leaders with
hospital/medical clinic administration backgrounds. There have been
graduate level degrees granted in that field since the 1960's.
This
may be a possible explanation for an absence of this type of skilled
management oversight from the top and may figure heavily into future
solutions to better management at the local, VA hospital/clinic level.
Budget may be a comparatively small part of the solution.
There
may be hospital/clinic administration consultants somewhere in the mix
at maybe even a senior level, but that is no substitute for in house
management expertise and experience to drive operational accountability,
particularly in the scheduling and demand management areas of health
care.
These are smart and well motivated people at all levels of
the VA. I have confidence they'll sort out the problems and find the
right solutions. They may need a smart congress to help them, at least
with funding. Smart congress? We can only hope. And we can send new
people there with a few brain cells and in November, I hope we clean up
the congressional shit hole and oust the teabaggers. That looks to me
to be heavier lifting that cleaning up the VA.
(graphic compliments Madeline Kerwick, Corpus Christi, Texas)

About Me

Moved to Wilmington, Delaware in mid-2013. Resided in Houston, Texas for 45 years. A widower, married Julie Jackson in 2007. Retired as a hospital marketing consultant in 2001.Have been a Democratic Party political activist for most of my adult life, organizing and mobilizing for the Party and its candidates. Consider myself a progressive populist. Early career included running communications for 35 campaigns. Have formed and led committees dealing with voter mobilization and precinct organizing, counter voter suppression and strategy.Co-founded the Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party. Have served on the Texas Democratic Party Platform Committee numerous times. Also an active organizer for the anti-war movement since Vietnam and was active in the civil rights movement.